real interview stories, told over a cup of tea ♡
Interview Experiences
3935 interview stories from candidates at 857 companies: how each round went, what was asked and how it ended. Every company page links to practice questions in the same style.
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3935 results
- Plaid Software Engineer interview with an opaque new-grad-style loopPlaid · Software Engineer · Online Assessment · Mar 2026
I went through a new-grad-style loop that felt oddly opaque. It started with an OA, followed by a phone screen and then a voice interview. The bar was hard to read because I wasn't getting consistent signals about what would count. During the phone step, the code I submitted wasn't even fully functional, yet I still moved forward. By the voice interview, my code and explanations felt solid. I did…
- Recruiter Downgraded the Level Before the HM Screen Even StartedGeico · Software Engineer · Senior+ · Technical Screen · Mar 2026Rejected
I saw this on an online job board. The job post was actually for a Distinguished Engineer, and I thought it would be a chance to get a taste of a super high-level IC role, a career jump of sorts, and I was fine taking a pay cut for that, so I applied. The recruiter then told me that their Distinguished level is calibrated against Google/Meta L8 ICs, which is two levels above my current scope, so…
- Referral, Product-Focused System Design and an $850k OfferAnthropic · Software Engineer · Senior+ · Onsite · Mar 2026Offer
A while back I landed a software engineer offer at Anthropic. Total compensation comes to about $850k USD. During prep I studied from online material and also did three mock interviews. The mocks mostly helped me feel steadier about system design, although the design round I got at Anthropic looked quite different from the typical format people practice. One thing I'd pass on: people generally in…
- Reflex-Game OA Then a One-Take Video ScreenIMC · Trader · New Grad · Technical Screen · Mar 2026Rejected
I applied online for IMC Amsterdam's graduate trader role in March, and right after I submitted the application it automatically sent me the first round OA. The first round was a 45-minute Neurolympics game — you can try a shorter demo version of the same kind of questions before the real thing, but the real test is longer. I did really badly on this round, both my speed and accuracy percentiles…
- Rejected After a Dasher Pay Coding Screen With No Starter CodeDoorDash · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Mar 2026Rejected
I got a question that's pretty common on the forum, a combination of a Bootstrap-style problem and DoorDash Pay. The interviewer didn't give me any starter code, just the description below. He said to assume I'm a downstream service and the data comes from upstream. The answer I wrote turned out to be correct, it's just that the data was test cases, not data mocked from an upstream interface. A f…
- Rejected After Onsite Over a Debugging NitpickCoinbase · Software Engineer · Onsite · Mar 2026Rejected
Round 1: crypto order system, pretty similar to other write-ups already on the forum. I had to parse the input myself and write my own test cases. I got to level 2 — after I finished the tests, the output had no issues, but I wasn't given level 3. Round 2: the "generate NFT" question, also already posted on the forum. Also had to define and parse the input myself — I used JSON. I finished the fir…
- Rejected After the Morning Onsite RoundsHudson River Trading · Algorithm Developer · Intern · Onsite · Mar 2026Rejected
I went to the onsite around October or November last year — sharing my experience getting rejected. I'm a US undergrad. I went through one coding OA and two math online interviews before getting to the onsite. The math rounds covered some probability and combinatorics questions — you need a solid grasp of the Central Limit Theorem and basic probability. The onsite has four rounds: programming, da…
- Round Two's Same-Day-Duplicate SQL QuestionBytedance · Data Scientist · Intern · Technical Screen · Mar 2026
This is my write-up for the second round of the TikTok DS interview (I also have a write-up for the first round, but I won't link it here). The interviewer gave a brief self-introduction. Then I introduced myself and walked through my resume. They dug into things like how I did data preprocessing, how I handled the bias/variance tradeoff, and how I chose performance metrics, and then briefly dug…
- Same Forum-Famous Questions, Completely Different NumbersMeta · Data Scientist · Onsite · Mar 2026In progress
SQL: Active Ads AR: Ads algorithm AE: Fake account Behavioral: Breakthrough project, disagreeing with someone, reporting to someone new to the team, how to make others feel welcome These are all old questions from the forum — really grateful to everyone who shared before me. Though it might be because they're old questions, the interviewer had changed them. The SQL one especially — same framework…
- Samsara Account Executive interview where the evaluation felt impression-basedSamsara · Account Executive · Mar 2026
The beginning felt fairly normal. I had a recruiter screen with basic resume questions, then spoke with the hiring manager about the role. Those early interviews were quick and structured, so I thought I was in good shape. The tone changed once I got deeper into the process. During the manager conversation, I felt as if I'd already been marked down somehow because of how I "looked the part," even…
- Samsara QA Automation Engineer interview, HIL take-home projectSamsara · QA Automation Engineer · Onsite · Mar 2026
I started with a pleasant Zoom call with the hiring manager, followed by a recruiter call that focused mostly on whether I wanted to continue. I was told the next steps would include coding and a take-home project. After I shared my availability, they scheduled four hours of interviews on one day. They didn’t explain beforehand that it would essentially function as a virtual onsite, so I tried to…
- Samsara Software Engineer interview: hiring manager deep dive and TPS roundSamsara · Software Engineer · HR Screen · Mar 2026
My process started with an HR call about project details and what I was looking for. That quickly led into a hiring manager deep dive, which also included a TPS round within the same hour. The TPS question wasn't too difficult and didn't feel like standard LeetCode. I didn't move forward after that, but the experience was reasonably straightforward. I understood what I was being evaluated on, and…
- Samsara Solutions Engineer interview: deal metrics and a take-home presentationSamsara · Solutions Engineer · HR Screen · Mar 2026
The process was more demanding than I expected. It went through several rounds, starting with HR and then moving into sales leadership. The overall acceptance rate felt low. They placed a lot of emphasis on showing a growth mindset, and the questions pushed me to be very specific about deal metrics. I had to prepare to go beyond surface-level answers. The interviews mixed behavioral prompts with…
- Scale Software Engineer interview with many coding rounds and debuggingScale · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Mar 2026
My process felt like an implementation marathon. I went through many coding-focused rounds, and it eventually became tiring and even boring instead of engaging. There were also behavioral and debugging rounds, and the debugging session was the most excruciating part for me. Some interviewers were good, but others turned off their cameras and stayed silent throughout the coding rounds. That made i…
- Setting a Retry Threshold to Save iPhone BatteryApple · Research Scientist · Onsite · Mar 2026Rejected
I recently interviewed for a Research Scientist role at Apple, on a team that works on battery power. Here's the question they asked. The team's core mission is optimizing iPhone battery life and power usage. They found that when users are on Apple Music, they often hit network fluctuations where the app can't get the audio data. At that point the system faces a choice: The disconnect could be a…
- Software Engineer interview at Rocket Lab: Large take-home assignment followed by long silencesRocket Lab · Software Engineer · Take-home Project · Mar 2026No response
The process started with a recruiter reaching out, and scheduling moved quickly. I had a short phone conversation, then met with a senior software engineer and received a take-home test. I completed it promptly over the weekend and sent it back as requested. After that, everything stalled. There was no review of the submission and no clear rejection. I kept following up, but I never received a di…
- Stackadapt Software Engineer interview with four rounds and a three-hour sessionStackadapt · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Mar 2026
My interview felt intense from the beginning. I went through four rounds back to back, including one session that lasted around three hours. The questions were difficult. The interviewers were kind, but the pace and scope made it hard to give a complete answer. One technical round was especially rough. I had to complete both a LeetCode-style medium problem and a system design prompt within the sa…
- Strong E6 Onsite, Rejected at Hiring CommitteeMeta · Software Engineer · Senior+ · Onsite · Mar 2026Rejected
A while back I interviewed for an E6 INFRA role at Meta. Every single interview felt positive, but I ultimately got cut at the hiring committee round, with no specific feedback. Pretty frustrated, but nothing to do except move on. Phone screens: I got "Er Liu" and "Odd Mutant" — aced both. Onsite coding: "Commander" and "Yao San San" — also aced both, and the follow-up edge cases the interviewer…
- System Design Stumble and a Grueling Behavioral RoundAxon · Software Engineer · Onsite · Mar 2026
SD: This was about fulfillment center truck routing and container/inventory. I didn't perform well in this round — I started off saying too much fluff about FR/NFR, and the interviewer caught it and challenged me on it, which put me under time pressure. I wasn't very familiar with this problem, since I've never worked on anything fulfillment-related. Looking back, I realized it was basically a si…
- System Design, Behavioral, and a Two Sum Variant OnsiteWalmart Labs · Software Engineer · Senior+ · Onsite · Mar 2026
This was a Walmart hiring event. I had passed the phone interview before, and then this physical onsite had three rounds. First round: system design, Ticket Master, done on a whiteboard. The interviewer was friendly and reminded me that I might not be following the process in the right order. You need to write the functional requirements, the non-functional requirements, then the model, the API,…
- the OA Was Basically the Same as a Study ArticleMeta · Software Engineer · Online Assessment · Mar 2026
The Meta RS OA wasn't too hard. I'd previously studied from an article that turned out to basically be the exact same questions. Q1: You need to find the index computed from rating divided by prices. If two entries tie, keep the one with the smaller index. When comparing, you don't need to compute the actual decimal — just cross-multiply to compare the two fractions directly. Q2: You need to comp…
- The Voleon Group Data Scientist interview: Python, data analysis, and model buildingThe Voleon Group · Data Scientist · Mar 2026
My process involved a lot of rounds and felt very thorough, almost standardized. After an initial step, I had two technical interviews followed by two soft-skill interviews focused on project and team management. The topics varied, but the structure stayed consistent. I was evaluated across several dimensions rather than only on coding. The technical interviews centered on Python coding tasks tha…
- Timeline From OA to Team MatchingGoogle · Software Engineer · New Grad · Onsite · Mar 2026In progress
Sharing a timeline and prep experience, hoping team matching goes well for me. Timeline 9/30 - role opened, submitted with a referral that same day 11/16 - received the OA, finished it 11/19, 11/26 next step: submit transcript 1/6 - R1 coding + BQ 1/8 - notified R1 passed, submit transcript + updated resume 1/15 - visa call (asked about status, whether I'd applied for EAD before, etc.) 2/4 - Bay…
- Top K Frequent Elements Phone ScreenBloomberg · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Mar 2026
The first round was a standard phone technical screen — coding only, no behavioral questions. The difficulty is generally on the higher end of LeetCode medium, and the focus is on whether your data structure choice is reasonable and whether your code is clean. The question I got was to design a data structure that supports insert, delete, and returning the current Top K most frequent elements. Th…
- Trexquant Investment Quantitative Analyst interview with a Markov-chain problemTrexquant Investment · Quantitative Analyst · HR Screen · Mar 2026
The process started with an HR call about my background and fit. I then had a technical interview with a quant researcher. It included a LeetCode medium question, then shifted into a more research-oriented problem involving a Markov chain and expected steps using a cube-like setup. What I remember most is that they followed up on the mathematics and also wanted an efficient way to simulate the id…
- Trexquant Investment Quantitative Analyst interview: one-month process ending with a CEO roundTrexquant Investment · Quantitative Analyst · HR Screen · Mar 2026
I first spoke with a recruiter about my background and general fit. That was followed by an online technical interview with a quant researcher focused on my analytical and quantitative skills. After that, I attended an onsite superday with several back-to-back interviews with different team members. The final stage was an interview with the CEO. The process took around a month. The recurring topi…
- Twitch Software Engineer interview with a two-hour assessmentTwitch · Software Engineer · HR Screen · Mar 2026No response
I interviewed for a Software Engineer role at Twitch and went through an unusually long assessment. I never received clear follow-up afterward. The process began with a recruiter conversation. The online assessment was a single extended technical assessment that lasted about two hours. I wished I could see my scores, but I never received them. I didn't hear back, and the experience left me thinki…
- Two AI Coding Rounds, a LeetCode System Design, and an AI-Enabled Design Round With No AIMeta · Software Engineer · Onsite · Mar 2026In progress
Two AI coding rounds, one traditional system design, one AI-Enabled Design round. AI coding 1: Max Unique Character Subset — given a list of words, find a subset of words where no two words in the subset share any repeated letters, and the subset covers the largest possible total number of unique letters. AI coding 2: Kind of a mess. This round the interviewer opened by telling me he hadn't reali…
- Two BQ Rounds Left Me With No SignalNetflix · Software Engineer · Onsite · Mar 2026
Just finished my interview. L5 SDE, Ads team, onsite. Coding: Not a LeetCode problem, but it's basically a Tree DFS problem underneath. Not too hard, but remember to write your own code and actually test it yourself. SD: Ad frequency cap — a classic. DM: Demand-side table. Also a classic — the usual set of tables: advertiser / campaign / ad group / ad. BQ1: Honestly I couldn't really tell what ki…
- Two Coding Rounds, Two System Designs and a Month Waiting for Team MatchGoogle · Software Engineer · Senior+ · Onsite · Mar 2026Offer
Interview Process: A friend referred me in October, and in the middle of November a Google recruiter phoned me. That first call is what started the whole thing. Two virtual rounds came next, a Googliness interview with a hiring manager and my first system design round, both held in the second week of December. Once I passed them, the onsite was set for the first week of January. Google is back to…
